


Empire

by Avalon1632



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Shadowrun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-02-13 03:49:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12975243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avalon1632/pseuds/Avalon1632
Summary: After taking over the Chase-Space from her parents, Victoria guides the company to become a world-spanning mega-corp dominating the media. After one of her reporters find something they shouldn’t, the company is taken from her and Victoria is thrust into the Shadows. She finds old friends and old enemies alike while trying to regain her corporate throne. Inspired by Shadowrun.





	1. Fall of Empire

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter I: Fall of Empire  
> \-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
> AN:  
> Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!
> 
> I'm back! Mostly. Still busy with uni. Christ on a bicycle, this shit is far more time-consuming than it has any damn right to be. Plus, I made the truly terrible decision to go to a uni 2+ hours away from where I live, a journey that requires taking a bus that literally hasn't been on time in two years. Bloody timetable is pretty much theoretical at this point. Anyways, just wanted to update y'all, make sure you know I'm not dead or anything. Plus, I actually got to write something that wasn't a multi-thousand word essay, which was hella nice. Admittedly I'm still too busy to work on the main stories and these two were mostly complete already so it was only editing and writing final scenes for both, but still. Writing! Egad, I have missed it. Anyway, I'm cutting this overly enthusiastic ramble short with the news that I'm getting ahead on my uni work, so I should be able to start reupdating regularly sometime in December/January. And Scene!
> 
> This one is based on the world of Shadowrun. It's a near-future Cyberpunk-Fantasy world. Corporations rule a dystopian world and conduct regular espionage and sabotage against one another. The people who are hired for that sabotage are called Shadowrunners. There are orcs and elves and other fantasy races, all adapted to a near-future setting, a lot of cool tech to play with and I mean a LOT; Cyber implants, computers called Decks that allow people to enter a Virtual Reality Internet called The Matrix (think Tron (if you don't know Tron go watch it immediately)), drones and RC versions of actual vehicles so you can call your plane/boat/truck to come get you, magic of multiple types, monsters and men, all the usual good stuff.
> 
> There's a Tabletop RPG that's pretty good (Except for 5th Edition. Whoever created 5th Edition Shadowrun needs to be marooned in the deepest level of the Abyss for the rest of eternity), a few video games, a surprising number of books and comics, and a bunch of other stuff, so if you're interested, there's plenty to get into.
> 
> For those of you who are interested how this story relates generally in the Shadowrun Timeline, this story is set in the early 2050s. So, Pre-Dunkelzahn Presidency, Pre-Shadowrun Returns, Pre-SURGE, Pre-Second Matrix Crash, etc. Victoria and the other Blackwellians are all in their early 30s (I haven't decided specifically when yet). If you don't give a toss, then eh. Enjoy.
> 
> Oh, and finally, this story is dedicated to the Oxford Comma. You go, you poor, underutilised bastard.
> 
> Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.
> 
> \-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ugh. I roll my eyes as I read yet another clunky, shittily-written sentence. I swear if I get my hands on whoever wrote this section for the morning broadcast, I'm going to fill them full of cyberware and leave them in my microwave for a few hours until they melt. They deserve that much, simply for mutilating the English language this fucking badly.

I delete the drek trying to pass for a decent news story and send a strongly worded message to the newsroom producer informing him that I would happily add him to the microwave punishment if I wasn't sent something better before morning. That done, I closed down my computer with a sigh, leaning back in my chair and running my hand through my hair.

Ugh. Why can't I get competent underlings?

I stand up and pace around my desk and up to the large arched window that dominated one wall of my home office. I had to blink hard a few times to get the shadow-images of my screen out of my eyes so I could actually see out of it properly. I'd paid for the best view in the bay, so I was going to damned well use it. When I finally managed to clear the ghosts, I walked up, leaned on the window frame and just watched.

I could see a boat coming into the shitty old dock that the bay still relied on. I'd tried to get them to replace it, but they responded with some 'heritage site' bullshit and refused any offer I made. And I made some seriously generous offers.

I sigh. Fuck, I've been working too damn long. Running this company is getting to be like a second fucking marriage. And it took me long enough to get out of the first one.

I snort. At least my company took my name. The paperwork needed to change mine after the divorce was seriously ridiculous. So glad I didn't have to go through that again.

A loud beeping from my computer draws me out of contemplating that fucking rabbit hole. I blink in surprise and walk over to check it. That was quick. Maybe I won't have to fire up the microwave after all.

I frown as I catch the sender name. "Huh." Juliet? What the hell does she want?

Juliet was my best reporter, not that I'd ever tell her that. Back at School, she'd always been obsessed with Journalism. She'd even gotten a stupid fucking nickname. The 'X-Treme Reporter'. But, after she'd left school, she'd lost everything. Nobody outside Tir Tairngire would hire an Elf.

Fucking idiots.

You wanna be the best, you hire the best, no matter who they are. Or, well, what they are, I guess.

Either way, I hired her, made her one of my lead reporters, and she was fan-fucking-tastic. One of the best business decisions I'd ever made. She had kind of mixed feelings about it. On one hand, she was grateful for a job, and on the other, she hated me. I'd made ChaseSpace Media the biggest name in Journalism and Entertainment on the entire planet, even getting a Prince's Seal from Tir Tairngire, and she'd couldn't get employed anywhere without my help.

I opened the flashing icon that indicated I had a new message.

'Took a look at those old Foundation files you sent me. Most of it's pure drek, but there's some potential for a story here. Found a couple files I couldn't access. Thought you'd like to give it a go with that bitty box of yours, being an amateur Decker and all. Try not to get geeked, omae.

Juliet.'

I ignored the insult. Amateur, hah. That's...

Huh.

I brought up the file.

Huh again. The big red message flashing on my desktop saying "Matrix-Access Acquired" had definitely caught my interest. I stared at it for a few seconds before... fuck it. I opened my bottom desk drawer and fished out my old deck.

I'd been modding and upgrading this thing for years, replacing components every time something newer and faster came out. Advantages of money, right? It was probably one of the most expensive things I owned. I pulled out the cable and slotted it into the datajack in my temple, feeling that familiar sense of comforting relief wash over me as the blue of the Matrix appeared.

I opened up a virtual demi-world and dropped the files in there. There we go, securely quarantined. No way in hell was I letting this thing infect the rest of my systems. Once it was safely contained, I dropped myself into the demi-world too. It was nothing complex, just a simple single-room sim. The file was sitting on a table, the one piece of furniture in the room.

I walked over, and opened the file.

Lines of code immediately burst out of it like paper out of a fucking party popper, streaking across the room.

They ricocheted off the walls and collided with my avatar. I screamed as they bit into me like fucking maggots, burrowing their way into my base-code. I tried to fight back, pull up an armour program, but the maggot ICE was too quick.

In the few seconds before I blacked out, I could've sworn I heard a discordant, electronic laugh.

\--

The first thing I felt when I woke up was pain. My fucking head was killing me. There was a... cold, metallic sensation on my face. Oh. I landed on my deck. I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, running a hand through my hair. "Ugh. Stupid fucking Ice, shit-eating bastards..."

I went on like that for a while. I knew a lot of swearwords.

When I finally calmed down and paid attention to my situation, I realised my hands had been shaking uncontrollably the entire time. Not a lot, but every Decker knows the signs of biofeedback. Whatever was in that fucking file had damaged the myelin sheaths around the neurons in my brain, leading to signal leakage. My brain signals were spreading in transit, becoming weak.

I tried to stand up, but wobbled and fell back down to the ground. Argh. Fucking Biofeedback. I needed to get to my desk before the nervous system damage became permanent.

After another couple of attempts, I finally managed to pull myself to my feet. I made it two steps towards my desk before I fell down again.

Fuck it.

I stayed on the floor and just crawled, feeling my arms shake the whole way, until I reached my desk. I yanked open the drawer my deck had been in and jerkily pawed through it until... ahah! I pulled out the syringe and immediately jammed it into my datajack. I sighed as the Biofeedback Medication filled my system.

I let myself sag and slip down onto my carpet, relaxing as the shakes stopped. Thank fuck for that.

That's when I noticed the small alarm blaring from my computer. I pulled myself up and clicked it. An internal camera alert? I opened the feed and threw it over to the main monitor. The picture expanded and... what the fuck? There were people in the building. In my building?!

They were wearing black armour, with helmets covering their faces, and they were currently in a shooting match with my security forces. They fucking dare? They broke into my fucking home? I watched in shock as they blasted their way through my hirelings and moved on to the next group, quickly and quietly.

These assholes were professionals. Shadowrunners. Drek, I hated Shadowrunners. They were the bane of any CEO's existence. These were my first, though. I took a minute to wonder what I'd done recently to merit this visit. Before I could work it out, Rachel burst into my office. "We've gotta go, Vic!"

Rachel was in her usual armour with her little machine-gun dangling from a strap on it. As my head of security, she was eternally concerned with my safety. "Do you know who these people are?"

"Not a fragging idea, omae. But they're pushing their way through my people. They're holding them at the second floor, but they won't last long. We need to get you out of here. The way these guys are wired, they're definitely here for wetwork."

My eyes bulge. "Wetwork?! They're here to kill me?" I glance back at the screen, watching yet another security guy get gunned down. Oh fuck, oh shit, I...

Rachel grabs onto my shoulders and holds me still so I'm looking straight at her. "Victoria, we can get you out of here and call in the bronze. These guys'll run the minute the heatwave drops. It'll be okay, so ka?"

"O-okay." I took a breath. "I'm okay. Where do we go?"

She grinned at me. "Wiz. And downstairs."

I gape at her. "Downstairs! But that's where the runners are!"

"It's also where our way out is." She grins at me, "Don't worry so much. Just stick with me and you'll be fine."

We made our way out of my office and headed for one of the side stairs. There were three in the mansion, one in the middle and one at each end. The Shadowrunners were heading to the centre stairs and fanning out along both wings, so we took the side.

Rachel lead us along the corridors of the top floor, stopping every now and again to check the corners. We made it to the stairs and down to the first floor without any trouble. It was only when we got close to the door that we had a problem.

"There's three of them." I peeked over the dresser we were hiding behind in the direction Rachel pointed and there they were. Two were human, flanking a seven or eight foot tall troll. The gun he was holding was huge. If he put it down, it'd be taller than I was.

"What are we going do?"

Rachel's only answer was another grin. She pulled up her satchel and started rooting through it. Jesus, what the hell is she doing? "What are you looking for?"

She pulls out a little sphere with a triumphant little 'aha!'. "This little thing. It's something the tech guys cooked up. Modified EMP." She waved over at the three mercenaries. "You see their legs? Cyberware. This will disable them."

Without waiting for me to respond, she threw the grenade over at them. It flew in a graceful arc and landed right between the troll's feet. He looked down and it exploded. All three mercs immediately collapsed and Rachel grabbed me. "Run, now!"

We ran as fast as we could past the wriggling bastards and out the door, heading straight for the garage. Rachel didn't stop once, barrelling through the door and dragging me over to the SK-Bentley. She basically threw me through the passenger side window, the bitch, then hopped into the drivers seat.

She threw me an amused grin, I threw her a pissed-off glare, then she revved the engine and sped off down the road. The car ate up the miles with ease; I only bought the best, after all. As we closed on the town, Rachel turned to look at me and smiled smugly. "Told you we'd get away."

I roll my eyes. "Smugness is not an attractive quality, Rachel."

She laughs, even more smugly. "Yes it is."

I turn to retort, and spot headlights speeding toward us. "Rachel, watch ou-!"

The truck smashes into us and flips the car. Everything seems to go through slow motion as we flip through the air. I end up hitting my head on the dashboard and black out.

The next few minutes were... kind of hazy. I remember being on the ground, everything hurting like a bitch, trying to stand up. Then, I catch sight of Rachel, lying a few metres away from me.

She wasn't moving.

"Ra-" I cough and my body is racked with pain. "Rachel!"

A figure melts out of the shadows, striding towards her. I turn my head, gritting my teeth as more pain jolts through my neck and upper back, to look at them.

The person is huge, big enough to make me think drone for a few seconds, until I catch sight of his face and the two tusks in his jaw, both the size and thickness of my forearm. It's... Oh, frakk. It's the troll from my foyer. How the hell did he catch up to us?

He stops just short of Rachel and looks down, laughing as she suddenly moves and fires twice at him. Both shots ricochet harmlessly off his armour. "You really are a persistent one, aren't you?"

Rachel says something up to him that I don't hear, and he laughs again. "Well, we'll have to remedy that, won't we?" He waves a hand and two more figures melt out of the shadows, both black-suited shadowrunners, and grab Rachel.

I try to sit up, but everything hurt too fucking much, so I settled for talking lying down. "Y-you..."

He looks over in my direction and grins. "Yes. Me." He stands up and walks past Rachel and towards me.

"Wh-who..."

"Who sent me? Now, Ms Chase. I am a professional. I can't just tell you, can I?" He leans in. "Where's the fun in that?" He straightens up with a sigh. "But, my orders are clear. Termination is a mission priority." He pulls a revolver from his belt and aims it in my direction. "So, I suppose there's no issue with telling you." He raises the gun. "The person who hired us is..."

There's several sharp cracks as shots ring out and collide with the troll's armour, forcing him back. He whirls and looses a few rounds from his revolver, but more shots thunk into him and his armour makes a loud cracking sound. The fucker's eyes bulge in alarm and he runs off.

Fucking coward. I try shout as he leaves, but everything was starting to go dark again, so I just end up muttering "Rachel. Rachel." over and over again like a fucking lunatic.

Hands wrap around me from behind and I wriggle, trying to get away from them, but they're seriously strong. "Don't worry, it's okay, you're safe now. We've got you."

The voice sounded... reassuring. After the shitshow of the last half hour, a reassuring voice was really fucking comforting, so I trusted whoever it was and let myself black out again.

I've been doing that a lot today.

I am so gonna have brain damage if I wake up.

\--

Someone is trying to shake me awake. I angrily slap their hand away and roll over with a muttered "Stoppit. Lemme go back t'sleep."

The fucker laughs and shakes me again. "Come on, Victoria. You've been in bed for long enough."

I scoff. Thanks, Mom.

Wait.

That's not Mom. She's been dead for six fucking years and... Oh, frakk. Rachel... an-and that Troll. Did that really happen?

I think it did.

I open my eyes.

Then, my mouth drops open. "Kate..?"

The face hovering over me beams in satisfaction. "You do remember! That's good. I was worried there'd be brain damage. Your fMRI scans were... bizarre, to say the least." She gives me a look that clearly asks if I know how bad that is.

I didn't.

When I don't respond, she retreats over to a small desk in the corner. There's an old computer sat open on it and, surprisingly, a stack of books. Kate always did love her old books.

I get distracted from my musings when a fly buzzes annoyingly around my head. I swipe at it, and it retreats off to somewhere else in the room.

I blink as I take in more of the room around me; the unfamiliar room around me. "Uh, Kate?"

She smiles. "Yes, Victoria?"

"What happened? Where am I?"

She blinks, then frowns. It's still as cute as it was back in school. She scrunches up her nose and gets this little furrow between her eyebrows that- "Oh, you don't remember?"

"I... I remember the troll, but nothing after that." An image of the troll pointing that revolver down at me flashes into my head. I close my eyes and force it away. Not now. Not. NOW. I look slowly around the room, noting the worn, but expensive-looking medical equipment surrounding my bed. I've interviewed a lot of people, in a lot of facilities, and I can tell the bad from the good. This place definitely falls in the latter category. "Where am I? Is this a Docwagon facility?"

It had better be. I pay those assholes millions of nuyen a year for corporate coverage.

"Not... exactly. You're in my chopshop."

Her chopshop? Kate Marsh is a fucking sawbones? I gape at her. "You run a fucking Black Clinic? You? What happened to the whole..." I wave a hand. "artist, thing?"

She shrugged. "People change, Victoria. After I Awakened, I... I found my calling." She focuses for a second, and a tiny... thing appears on her shoulder. "This is Alice."

"Alice..?"

Kate extends a hand and 'Alice' runs down it, settling at the end of her hand and tilted her little head curiously at me. She chitters for a second and Kate nods. "It's okay, Alice. She's a friend."

Alice extends her head and, numbly, I reach out and stroke her. She visibly vibrates when I do, then skitters back up Kate's arm to hide near her shoulder. Kate smiles. "It seems she likes you."

"She's a nature spirit, right?"

Kate hmms. "She is. Modern medical tech makes surgery less... disruptive to the patient than it used to be, but it's still an ordeal for both the body and the spirit. I do my best to heal the whole patient." She reaches up and pets Alice, who chitters again. "This little one helps with the post-surgery healing rituals."

"Huh." Kate smiles as I stare at the little creature, feeling weirdly mellow. "So, um... what's it like? Being a Shaman?"

She shrugs. "Like being a Decker, I imagine. We both see things most people don't."

"Huh." I really need to stop saying that. "How long have you lived in Portland? I kind of... lost track of you, after school." I lost track of a lot of people then. My 'loving husband' made fucking sure of that.

She frowns, tilting her head. "Oh, of course, I didn't realise... We're not in Portland. We're in Seattle."

"Seattle?" That was hours north of both Portland and the Bay. Even longer if you tried to cross The Wall legally... "How did I get here?"

Kate opens her mouth to speak, but someone interrupts her. "That would be us, ace."

Kate sighs. "I was so hoping to keep this revelation until later..."

I look over to the figure standing in the door and my mouth drops open again. "Juliet..?"

She grins, and it's more relaxed than I've ever seen her. "Hey boss. You look like drek."

I gape at her and her grin turns into a laugh. "The Great Victoria Chase, lost for words. I never thought I'd see the day." She slinks into the room, stopping just short of the bed. When I glare at the smug bitch, she sighs. "Okay, okay. So, I... kind of don't just work for you..." She gives me a look like she's expecting me to explode.

She WHAT?! Inside, I'm furious. This bitch was two timing me? Me?! But outside, I stay cool and calm. I enjoy surprising people. "Who else do you work for?"

After a few seconds, she shrugs. "A local Fixer. She hired me to use your resources to find information for her."

"You fucking traitorous bitch."

She snorts. "Oh, that's wiz, coming from you, tridmonger. How many times have you turned on some poor schmuck you'd got a shitty deal with and fragged them with that media empire of yours just 'cause they dared to do something that pissed you off?" She leans in. "But what are you gonna do, now you've lost it all?"

"Juliet!" Kate snaps and Juliet fucking flinches. "You will not antagonise my patient in front of me, understood?"

"Understood. Sorry, Doc."

Kate glares. "And her."

Juliet sighs, then turns to me. "Sorry Victoria."

Kate's glare turns to me. I flinch when I spot the little flames flickering in her eyes. "Sorry, Juliet."

Then, the flames in Kate's eyes spark out and she's smiling again. "Good. No arguing in my clinic."

I look back at Juliet and motion for her to continue. She does. "When you and Rachel were chased out of the estate, I called the fixer to let her know. Her team picked you up, after you crashed, and brought you here."

"Here? To a Chopshop?" I glance at Kate. "No offence."

She waves a hand dismissively. "Null sheen, Victoria."

"You know if you brought me to any of their facilities, Docwagon would've taken care of my treatment?" I raise an eyebrow and stare at Juliet, expecting her to offer immediately to transfer me. "No need to bother taking me all the way to Seattle."

But she doesn't. She and Kate share a look. Kate shakes her head, almost imperceptibly, but I'm used to observing micro-expressions in interviews. "Kate..? What's..."

"Nothing, Victoria." Hmph. She hasn't gotten any better at lying since school. "You concentrate on getting better. There'll be plenty of time for that later."

"May-" I angrily swipe at the fly as it buzzed around my head again. "Damn fly! Kate, don't you have a fucking bug zapper or something?"

Kate frowned. "I do, actually. There's a fly..?" Her eyes flashed for a second. She stared intently at the fly then... she growled. "What have I told you about drones in my ward?"

A figure steps out of a dark spot in the corner, laughing. "You're no fun, Kate."

I catch sight of her face. Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me...

"Max fucking Caulfield?!" My mouth opened and closed uselessly as I tried to process this... unplanned school reunion. "Y-you're..."

The dwarf girl grins up at me. "Still hella short?"

Another voice echoes through the door. "Max? Max? Where the fuck are you?"

"In here, Chloe!" Max calls back.

Chloe..?

Oh frakk...

A tall, built figure bursts through the door. "Vicky! You're awake!" Her hair is long, and electric blue, and she's in need of some serious dental work.

"Chloe. Price."

I groan and the Ork girl grins at me, exposing yet more of her awful teeth. "In the flesh, omae." She turns to Juliet. "Didya tell her yet?"

"Not yet, Chloe." Juliet rolls her eyes.

Chloe whirls and looks over at me, still grinning. "Our boss wants to talk to you."

I raise an eyebrow. "You mean the fixer who hired Juliet?"

Chloe nods. "Yep. That's the one. She runs this whole neighbourhood. You wanna stay, you gotta get her say-so. And her help to lose your SIN."

Lose my SIN? I frown. "Why would I-"

Kate suddenly stands up. "Alright, alright. Everyone out."

When everyone immediately protests, she holds up a hand.

They all immediately shut up.

Woah.

"My ward. My rules. And my rules say you're all crowding my patient. So, out."

Everyone grumbles, but the three of them wander out. Chloe calls back to me as she leaves. "We'll come back to take you to the Boss hella soon!"

I sigh, relief flooding through me. I'd gone back to my school self the second I saw Max. Old grudges die hard, I suppose. "Thanks, Kate."

She smiles. "Null sheen. That was a little too much, too soon. I'll try keep things peaceful as long as I can, but..." Her smile drops. "you'll have to see the old lady sooner or later though."

I give her an indolent shrug. "I'm sure. Will she be able to arrange my transport back to Tir Tairngire? I really need to get back to the office." And find someone to hunt down that ork bastard, and find Rachel.

Kate sighs. "Another revelation I was hoping to keep for later. Unless you've changed far more than I realised since Blackwell, you're not going to let up about it until I tell you, so..."

She pulls a seat up to the side of my bed. "You can't go home."

I blink. "What? Are you holding me prisoner?"

She shakes her head. "No, not that, it's just..." Her mouth crinkles as she tries to find the words for whatever she's about to say. "Your house was attacked, by runners. They destroyed the entire place after you left."

"So ka. And the sooner I get back, the sooner I can start hunting them down." I snarl. "They're gonna regret ever attacking me."

She shakes her head again. "It's not just that. There was damage to your DocWagon Implant, so the world thinks you died, and..."

She trails off and the bottom drops out of my stomach. "And what, Kate?"

"And somebody bought your company."

I immediately sit straighter. "Someone WHAT?!"

She nods mutely.

"Who?" I growl.

"Saeder-Krupp."

"Saeder? Fragging? Krupp? That asshole wyrm Lofwyr stole my company?" A Great Dragon had hired runners to take me down. How had I fucked up badly enough to attract a Dragon's attention?

"We think so. He bought your company about two hours after you were reported dead." She hesitated. "I'm sorry."

I slumped back against the bedframe. "Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit." I ran my hand through my hair, muttering angrily under my breath. "How could I let this happen? Everything I fucking worked for, gone. Everything." I wipe at my eyes. "Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit."

After a few minutes, Kate stood up and silently left the room.

My muttering turned into sobbing as I came to terms with it. Everything I'd built over the last ten years was gone. Wyrms never gave up their prizes once they had them. I was completely alone for the first time since school... No employees, no resources, no home... I'd have to kill him to get my company back.

Kill Lofwyr... I thought muzzily, as I drifted down into sleep.

\--

"-and our new company CEO, SK's own ex-CTO Carter Ozman, will be speaking later this afternoon on what this new chapter in Chase Space Entertainments' life will contain." It's only by sheer restraint that I don't throw the fucking tablet across the room. Instead, I squeeze it hard enough that the casing cracks.

"Y'know you haven't got the scratch to replace that if ya frag it, omae?"

I look up and glare at the smirking orkish face staring down at me. "What do you want, chummer?" I practically spit out the runner vernacular.

She laughs. "You suits really can't talk normal, can ya?"

I sigh. "What do you want, Grunger?"

She bristles at the race jab. "Nana wants to see you ASAP."

Nana? "Who the hell is Nana?"

Chloe just shrugs. "She's the boss."

Oh. I'm finally going to get to meet the woman responsible for Juliet's betrayal. "I assume we're going to her?"

Chloe snorts. "Yeah. Nana wants to talk to you, you go to her."

I shrug. "Alright." Truth be told, I was kind of curious. I sigh, as I realise "You'll have to help me up though."

She nods and, without a word, helps me to my feet. Kate watches me from her desk with a smile as we walk towards the exit. "Good luck!" She waves.

I wave vaguely back and step out, and am immediately assaulted by the local stench. Delightful. My sinuses will thank me for getting out of this when I'm home. The Tir might be a racist dictatorship, but at least the air is clean.

As we walk across the neighbourhood, people skitter out of our way. Chloe doesn't even spare them a glance. She just strides ahead, a few paces in front of me, leading us to wherever this Nana wants us to be.

I wonder if she's Mafia. They're into the familial titles. Last I heard, they weren't doing so well here though. The Yaks were moving in from Japan, taking out the local Korean branches, and aggressively moving in on Mafia territory. The Mafia had responded by bringing the Hammer out from retirement.

The war had been going on for the last ten years with no change.

The last thing I wanted was to get involved like that. One of the rules of my profession was strict neutrality. We made no judgements, never criticised or praised. We simply reported.

Chloe leads us up to a small house tucked between two towering apartment blocks. It's... quaint, white picket fence wrapped around a small garden, with a stairway leading up to the one incongruity in the outer structure - a solid steel security door. The same one the ChaseSpace Headquarters building had, actually. That's the only hint this building is the home to a Made Woman.

Chloe strides up to it, and raps on it five times. After a few seconds, the door slides open and a heavyset, dark-skinned troll with a psychedelically coloured Mohawk steps out. He nods on seeing Chloe. "Hey Blue."

Chloe nods back. "Bolan. The old lady's expecting us."

Bolan's eyes flick over to me. One of his irises rotates as his bioware eye focuses on me. He scans my body, eye moving from my side to my hip to my shoes. "Turn around, please."

I raise an eyebrow at Chloe, who nods at me to get on with it already. I turn, and his eye scans the rest of me. "You can turn back around now."

I glare at him.

He doesn't seem bothered.

"She's in the front." He meets my eyes. "Behave, wageslave. We have our eyes on you."

Before I can retort, Chloe plants her palm in the small of my back and shoves me through the door. The inside is even quainter than the outside. Faded floral wallpaper lines the walls, the carpet is worn, and there's that faint musty smell that always seems to layer every old person's home.

I shrug Chloe off, readjust my coat. "Where to now?"

"Through here. And fucking remember what Bolan said. You be a bitch here, and Nana won't think twice about dusting you."

I smirk. "Noted."

She knocks at a door, then pushes it open. I follow her through into the tackiest sitting room I'd ever seen. Everything clashed, from the upholstery to the woodwork, and there was a truly uncomfortable overabundance of tassels. The tackiest thing in the room, a painfully bright red velvet chair, was occupied.

This must be Nana.

She was stocky. Not Dwarvish stocky, but still a very sturdy-looking woman. Her skin was dark, her hair was grey (and pulled into a tight, almost grandmotherly bun), and a little pair of shaded pince-nez perched on the end of her nose. She looks up when we enter. "What'm I gon' do with you, Blue?"

Chloe bows her head. "I'm sorry, Nana. What were we supposed to do, just leave her?"

Nana nods emphatically. "Yeah, you were. But, ain't nothin' gonna be change now, I guess." She takes off her glasses and leans forward, looks me over. "An' I s'pose you must be Ms Chase."

I nod politely. "Yes, Nana." She wanted manners, I could do manners.

She grins. "Good. They's told you how things work 'round here." She leans back in her chair again. "So, I hears Lofwyr took your company?"

"Yeah." I take a deep breath, force myself not to say more. These people were definitely criminals, even if Nana wasn't Mafia. They still required Blood for membership, so Nana, with her dark skin and Cajun accent, wasn't really Made material.

"An' I hears you still a SINner?" Her voice is hard as steel, and suspicious as a CI. But there's a hint of curiosity there too.

"I am." I get the idea that there's not much point to lying to this woman. I've got nothing left. I need all the allies I can get.

She snorts, glances at Chloe. "An' you still think bringin' her here was a good idea?"

Chloe nods, but doesn't meet Nana's eye. It's seriously weird. She was the most belligerent, fuck-authority person I'd ever met, and she's bowing to this woman?

"Well then. I guess we's gon' hafta work out some sort of deal, ain't we?"

I frown. I really don't like her tone. "A deal?"

She hmms. "See, this is my neighbourhood, an' these is my people. You puttin' 'em all in danger. First time you walk outside, get caught on a camera, you're gonna bring the heat down on alla us." She taps a stubby finger on her knee. "So, we're gonna have to get that biz seen to. Confess that SIN of yours, an' we'll get it burned." She grins, and it splits her face like a gaping knife wound. "An' in return, you gonna do somethin' for me."

"And what would that be?"

She shrugs. "I dunno. What you good at? Theys brought you in with a pretty high-price deck. You know how to use it, sha?"

I smirk. "You hired Juliet to gain internal access to my systems. I assume you tried to hack me first?"

She nods. "Some powerful software there. Fried a brain or two in the commune before we got 'ole Jules in."

"I wrote that software."

The bitch laughs, actually laughs! "Naw way, sha. Suits like you don't get their hands dirty like that."

Heh. Now I know my way in. "Give me something to hack. I'll prove it."

She raises an eyebrow of her own, and gives me a long, lingering look of appraisal. "Hmm. I think I might have somethin' for you to do then. We need a new decker."

"What's the job?" I'd interviewed enough runners to know what questions to ask.

"A simple brush-up run on a... disrespectful subordinate of mine. I need him gone, but I need his data intact. I can provide a short-term cover for the job. You get it done, I help you disappear. Deal?"

I don't hesitate. "Deal."

"Then you gonna need a handle. You go 'round introducin' yo'self as Victoria Chase, CEO of ChaseSpace Media, then burnin' your sin ain't gonna be worth drek. Get used to usin' it now, you might not screw up when you join the shadows."

I think for a second. I'm a bitchy decker, so... "Ice."

Chloe snorts. "Wiz."

Nana just shrugs. "Now our biz be done." She waves a hand. "Buzz off, get on with it. Come see me when you done, Ice. Laissez les bon temps rouler!"

Chloe leads me out, and back to Kate's chopshop. Neither of us say a word.

\--

I almost relax as I walk down the corridor to my room. I stop when I see the open door. They've found me, they've... I blink. "Kate?"

She's standing over my bed, up to the elbows in a gaping stomach wound. Her teeth are clenched, and she's got the same look of concentration she used to have while doodling in Jefferson's class. "Victoria." Her tone, unlike her expression, is utterly casual. We might as well be chatting over soykaf lattes.

"You're in my room."

She snorts, corrects me neatly. "My room. You're here on my sufferance. And this patient needed it more."

"But... where am I supposed to go?" I mutter, plaintively.

"Anywhere but here. I'm busy." Whoever owns the body with the gaping stomach wound groans as a robotic surgery arm smoothly jabs a needle into them.

"But, I..." That same adrift feeling starts to surface again. I know people here but, at the same time, I really really don't. "Where..?"

Kate doesn't look up. "Fine, Victoria. You can go stay in my office for now. I'm busy."

I watch her quietly for a few seconds then, when she doesn't say anything more, I turn and head for her office. I slip into the room and activate my deck, sitting in the room's one chair and opening up a small screen. I pull up the Shadowlands portal and start skimming threads. That'll kill some time.

A few hours and several hastily copied notepad pages worth of data later, there's a knock at the door. After a second, it opens and Max steps inside. "Hoi, Vic."

"Victoria. Never Vic." I immediately retort.

Never Vic. Never again...

She carries on like I never said a word. "Victoria. I heard you're working for Nana now."

I shrug. "On a provisional basis. If I help her, she'll burn my SIN."

Her eyebrows raise. "Burn your SIN? You're really staying?"

I scowl. "Well, it's not like I have a fucking option, do I? Lofwyr took everything."

She tilts her head. "Well, you're welcome to come stay with us, if Kate's kicking you out."

"...us?"

She nods. "Me and Chlo. We've got a place near here. You'd have your own room, too. Well, you would tomorrow." She amends. "You'd have to share it with my drones and Chloe's lab stuff tonight, but we could get them moved in the morning?"

It's weird... She sounds like she's trying to persuade me that this is a good idea. Am I that fucking pathetic that Max Caulfield is taking pity on me? Drek...

But I really don't have any other options... "Okay."

She grins. "Shiny. I've got a few things to do, but you can tag along if you wanna come check out the place today?"

No other options... I pack away my deck and stand. "Okay."

Her grin grows. "Okay then. Come on, let's buzz. We're heading to see Buster first." She hesitates. "Just... try not to talk a lot. You'll be made as a suit in a second flat."

"Hey!" I protest. "I can talk streetslang."

She eyes me dubiously. Bitch.

Buster turned out to be a neat-looking ork in the middle of a yard full of weaponry. He's dressed incredibly well for this neighbourhood, all straight lines and military precision. The only things compromising his neatness are the uneven tusks protruding from his mouth and the cybernetic right arm; one obvious enough to be noticeable, but not so obvious as to ruin the line of his suit.

Max walks over and stands patiently, waiting as he deals with two tall, lithe elves in ugly green leather jackets with a circled A emblazoned on the back. He speaks softly, thoughtfully, and talks to them almost exclusively in numbers: calibres, ranges, rounds per second, arc of fire, razoring factor, tensile strength and, of course, price.

My Sperethiel is a little weak, but I manage to understand most of their conversation. The two elves were part of the Ancients, a nation-wide Elf-Centric go-gang. They were organising the payment for a weapon shipment. Or organising the shipment of a weapon payment.

Sperethiel was weird. Endless subtleties upon subtleties made the language a nightmare. Either way, Ancient Biz wasn't mine. We stayed quiet and out of the way until the two elves laugh, shake Buster's hand, then leave.

Max walks over. "Hoi, Buster!"

"Mad Max!"

The ork grins, and the two do some complicated handshake that lasts for almost a minute before laughing. "I've got someone I want you to meet." Max turns to me, gestures. "This is Ice."

I give the ork a curt nod. "Hoi, chummer."

Max rolls her eyes, and one of Buster's eyebrows shoots up. "Nana's letting a suit stay here?"

I eye him, then Max, who just shrugs. "Sorry, Buster. You know I can't talk about Nana's biz. But she's with me." Her expression practically screams "I told you so."

He tilts his head, then looks me over. He nods. "Any friend of Max's is a friend of mine. Bunker Buster Gruberman, at your service. I also answer to Sergeant, Sir, and even Theodor on occasion. Anytime you’re in the market for firearms, ammunition, or ordinance, I’m your man."

I nod back. "You're the gun guy."

He grins. "I'm the gun guy."

Max coughs. "Sorry to rush you, Buster, but I've got a lot to do today. You got Nana's shipment?"

Buster nods. "Came in last night. Usual drop off?"

"Yep. I've got your payment here." She reaches out and they shake hands again. The movement disguises Max's credstick slotting into a reader at Buster's wrist.

There's a pause, then a quiet bing sound that marks a succesful transfer of nuyen. "A pleasure doing business with you."

Max grins. "Isn't it always, Buster?"

He rolls his eyes. "You have any other biz to discuss?" He turns his head to meet my gaze. "Maybe Ms Ice needs a gun?"

If I'm getting into running, maybe I do. I've never fired one before in my life though. Where do I even start? "What..?"

Max interrupts. "Do you have any of the Ares pistol stock left?"

The ork pulls up a viewscreen. "Just a couple of the 70s. Sold my last batch of 75s this morning."

Max nods, and mutters a stream of rapidfire gun jargon I barely catch then asks "How much?"

Buster does some quick calculations, then "1100 nuyen."

"Done." They don't bother with the handshake this time, Max just slots her credstick. After a second, the reader beeps.

Buster taps a few things on his screen and, after it emits a loud beep, a small arachnoid drone skitters out of one of the smaller buildings built into the outer wall of Buster's yard. It stops a little short of us, mimics the beep from Buster's screen, then deposits a small box on the ground in front of me.

When I look up, Buster motions to the box. "Enjoy your purchase, Ms Ice."

I pick it up, open it, and take out the gun. Max immediately snatches it from my hand. "I'll be taking that."

When I protest, she glares up at me. "You have no idea how to use that. Trust me, omae. You'll blow your head off."

I sigh, mentally promising to punish her for that later, then nod. "Fine." I turn back to the ork. "It was nice meeting you, Buster."

He nods. "Likewise, ma'am."

Back to Max. "Where to next?"

"The University."

I blink. "You have a university here?"

She snorts. "Frag, no. SU's only open to the corp kids. It's a local nickname for the talismonger's place. He's ex-corp, with a crapload of degrees, and won't let anyone forget it."

I match her snort with one of my own. I'd known a few people like that. Drek, I used to be one of them.

The Talismonger lived in a largish wooden building set-up against a factory wall. It shook slightly with every loud noise from the machinery inside the factory. I, uh... wasn't happy to be going inside. "Uh..."

Max laughs. "I know, I know. But it's sturdier than it looks."

I eye the structure, dubious, but I stay quiet.

She leads me up to the door, knocking on it in a repeated pattern. 1-3, 1-3, 2-2, 1. After three cycles through, the door creaked open and a vaguely-nasal voice asked "What can the master of mysteries do for you this evening, Bastard's servant?"

I lean in. "Bastard servant?"

"Nana's full handle is Nana Bastard."

I blink. Oh.

Max walks in to the room and, after a second's hesitation, I follow. The first thing I notice is that the room inside didn't shake at all. The second thing was that it wasn't made of the same wood as the outside.

One wall is dominated by a lit fireplace, crackling lightly and filling the room with a pleasant wooden scent. The other three are filled with bulging bookshelves, none of which had any evident order to them. Ancient leather-bound tomes mixed freely with late 20th century paperbacks, scattered with occasional plastic-encased electronic readers.

It was a mess, but a very, very expensive one.

In the middle of the room, sat on top of a slightly raised dais, was a large mahogany desk, covered with papers and tomes. A tall, lithe, and very bald human sat at it, watching as Max crossed the room to stand in front of him.

He didn't even look at me.

"Ms Caulfield. I ask again, what is your business here?"

Max bowed. "Nana was wondering if her request had been fulfilled."

The man shook his head. "These things cannot be rushed. Manipulating the metaplanes in this way is dangerous, rushing could be fatal, even for me."

As Max opens her mouth to say something, he holds up a hand. "Fear not, servant of the Bastard, your employer will have her purchase within the week."

As I'm wondering faintly what Nana purchased, he turns to me. "You must be our newest arrival, Ms Ice. It's a pleasure to meet a fellow educated individual in this backwood."

I blink. I was honestly surprised a Thaumaturgist would recognise a journalism (work) and photography (What? A workaholic media heiress can't have a hobby?) graduate as a peer, but I guess he didn't have much to work with out here.

Max quickly motioned for me to bow, so I did. I didn't know when I started to trust the little hipster, but here we were. The old mannerisms of high society quickly reasserted themselves. "The pleasure is mine, sir."

He smiled. "Call me Archibald. I see you aren't one of the gifted?"

I shake my head. "I know enough to keep myself protected, but I'm not a magic user myself, no."

His smile turns almost pitying. Asshole. "Ah. Wisdom and beauty, a rare combination indeed."

I resist the urge to grimace, instead smiling back, pleasant and business-like. "Thank you, Archibald. Rarer still to meet someone with good manners."

He laughs at that. "So true." I feel mildly nauseated, talking with this guy. Such a fucking asshole. I turn back to Max. "Shouldn't we be leaving Archibald to his very pressing business? I'm sure he doesn't want us taking up too much of his time."

Archibald tries to interject a protest, but Max speaks before he can. "Oh drek, you're right." She bows to Archibald, "My apologies for tarrying too long, thank you for your time." and we scurry out the door.

As it swings shut behind us, she turns to me and grins. "Smooth, Chase."

I glare, but can't stop myself from grinning back. "Bite me, hipster."

"Aww, is the media heiress getting cranky? Don't worry, just one more stop and then we'll get you to bed."

She strides off down an alley, ignoring me as I skitter after her (How the hell am I being outpaced by a freaking dwarf?) yelling "-What? Where are we going?"

After the mage's home, the next place she shows me is kind of a disappointment. We stand on the sidewalk, looking up at a dilapidated cylindrical tower-structure that, at around nine floors tall, looms over both of us. I turn my head. "What's this place?"

Max doesn't answer, instead walking forward to the door. A tall, suited troll stops her from entering. "You ain't on the list." He drawls.

Max smirks. "Check again. Under Bastard."

He doesn't even blink. "You ain't Nana."

"No, but I am on her biz. You wanna stop me, you're going to have to take it up with her."

They both glare at each other, like David and Goliath. A minute passes, then another, and they both crack up in smiles. "You go right in, Max. Give the old lady my regards."

Max clasps his hand in hers. "Thanks, Cerb. Will do."

As we walk past, I hiss "What the frakk was that?" I seem to be asking that a lot today. Can you really blame me? It's been kind of fucking weird.

She shrugs. "Just a bit of fun. Cerb likes to play guard dog, and it's null sweat to let him."

"Cerb? What kind of a name is Cerb?"

Max smiles. "An appropriate one." She pushes open the large set of ornate double doors, sitting under a large, switched-off neon sign reading 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here'. "Welcome to Inferno."

The club was lit with red lights, with walls covered in gaudy satanic iconography. Dancing devils were framed by burning sconces, pentagram rugs were scattered around red velvet couches along all the walls.

It was... pardon the pun, tacky as hell.

The ceiling above and the floor below me were both made out of transparex, allowing me to see at least seven levels above, and two below. Ramps wound along the outer walls, and a massive spiral staircase speared up through the open shaft in the centre of the building.

The club was almost empty, but I knew it would be full of people later. Most Seattle clubs ended up packed, even this early in the night. The only people in here now were a trio hanging by the bar: a male ork, a female human, and a female dwarf.

Max walked over. "Hoi, Chummers!"

The three nodded, shook Max's hand, all the while staring at me. When the pleasantries had been seen to, the dwarf growled "Who's the suit?"

"Ice."

They blinked at my short, curt tone. I figured, if talking gave me away as a corporate suit, I simply wouldn't.

Max chips in "She's Nana's new hire. I'm just showing her the sights."

The Ork nods, grinning at me. "Right on, sister. I'm Trev."

The human and the dwarf introduce themselves as Cherry and Morgause respectively. "Is Dante around? Nana needs a favour."

Cherry nods towards another set of double doors. "In the back."

Max nods, and starts walking to the doors. I make to follow her, but Morgause stops me. "Ah-ah." She admonishes. "Max might vouch for you, but we don't know you. You stay out here."

"Uh, Max?"

Max shrugs. "Their house, their rules, Ice. Don't worry, I won't be too long."

I nod and, after a pause to pull myself together, take a seat on one of the barstools. Cherry almost immediately takes the next stool. Of course. Time to chat. "So, Ice..."

I give her a placid look. "Yes?"

She bats her eyelids, smiles. "You're new in town, right cutie?"

I nod. "Yes." There's no problem admitting that, right? Plenty of people move to Seattle.

"Wiz. Well, if you ever want the nickel tour, just let me know. I'm an ace guide."

I nod again. "Thanks."

She frowns, a little sullen that I'm being so monosyllabic. I feel a little pang of guilt, but not enough to drop the charade. These people were criminals. Any one of them would sell me out to Lofwyr without a second thought.

"So," Morgause starts. "What's your speciality?"

I tilt my head, stare silently, and wait for clarification. She quickly fills the silence. "You've got a 'jack, so y'know, you've gotta be a decker or a rigger.., right? You're not built enough for a blade, and you ain't got enough 'ware for a so..."

"Decker." I cut her babble off, before it can get any worse.

She nods, smiles. "Wiz. Hope you're good. Our last deckjockey got flatlined a few years back going up against some rich bitch's ICE wall. The new crew could frag up a drek run."

I shrug. "I guess we'll see."

She grins. "Guess we will."

The girl goes mercifully quiet, and we sit in silence until Max walks back in. She doesn't stop to chat, muttering goodbyes as she walks past the group. I immediately hop up and follow her out. She nods to the guard dog on the door, and we head out into the streets.

"That's everything done, Ice. You still want that room?"

I shrug. "It's not like I have any better options."

She laughs. "I guess that's true. Come on then. You'd better hope we beat Chloe back, or she'll have eaten all the food before we're even halfway there."

\--

Shadowrun Glossary:  
Drek - Shit  
Tir Tairngire - At this point, it's an Elf-Supremacist Dictatorship set-up in Oregon and Washington state. Pretty unpleasant place to live, if you're not an elf.  
Elf - Pointy ears, long-lived, you know the type.  
Prince's Seal - Tir Tairngire gives these out to corporations they like so that they can operate in their territory without being piled under crippling restrictions and tariffs.  
Bitty Box - A shitty computer.  
Decker - The Shadowrun term for a Hacker. Uses a special new type of computer called a deck to hack computers through the Matrix.  
Geeked - Killed  
Omae - Japanese term for friend. Kind of a weird one, because in reality it's more of a passive-aggressive formal version in the vein of "Hey buddy, back off, would ya?" but Shadowrun characters use it in a more friendly tone.  
Datajack - An implanted piece of tech that works with a Deck to allow Deckers to enter the Matrix.  
Matrix - The Matrix is a VR simulation of the world-wide computer network.  
Sim - Simulation  
ICE - Intrusion Countermeasures, security software designed to keep Deckers out of your computers.  
Biofeedback - Affects Deckers who go up against certain ICE. Strips away parts of the brain, causing severe physical and mental issues and usually death.  
Shadowrunners - Specialists who work for basically whoever wishes to hire them to do very illegal things, often corporate sabotage/espionage. They're the main focus of the game.  
Fragging - Killing, Fucking.  
Wetwork - Assassination  
Bronze - The Cops, from the Bronze Badges  
Heatwave - A police crackdown  
So Ka - Japanese-ish for Understand/Understood?  
Wiz - Short for Wizard. Means Good.  
Troll - The largest metatype, they average about 9ft tall, and are hella bulky. They also have horns (a la Qunari) and some odd natural armour spine-wart things (calcified dermal deposits). This metatype tends to be the biggest focus of racial targeting.  
Cyberware - Implanted augmentation hardware, like gun-arms, or brain-implanted computers.  
Frak - Fuck  
Docwagon - A corporation that specialises in entering high risk environments to provide on-scene medical care. Think Doctors without Borders, but with Tanks and Machineguns.  
Nuyen - New-Yen, the new world standard currency.  
Chopshop - An illegal medical establishment  
Sawbones - An unlicensed doctor who works in a chopshop  
Black Clinic - An illegal medical establishment

Awakened - Gaining magical powers or becoming a meta-human (Elf, Dwarf, Troll, or Ork)  
Spirit - Shadowrun has a lot of these things. They're sentient organisms that live on alternate planes/dimensions (called the metaplanes) and tend to cause a lot of havoc when they come over into ours. They're also what magic users use to make magical things happen.  
Rituals - Things Shamans use to summon/utilise spirits  
Shaman - A magic user who works with nature spirits  
The Wall - Think the Berlin Wall, but hole-ier. Built around Portland by the Tir Tairngire government.  
Ace - Expert  
Fixer - A go-between, deal-maker, and information broker who sells their services. Usually to Shadowrunners.  
Tridmonger - A news/media-person. 'Trid' is the three-dimensional successor to video, either in hologram or VR simulation.  
Null Sheen - No sweat. Either something easier, or don't bother yourself about it.  
Drones - High-tech robot things with guns, controlled by a class called a Rigger.  
Dwarf - Short, tough, bearded. Generally the most well-treated of the metatypes, due to their physical similarity to humans and general usefulness.  
Ork - Bulkier, slightly larger humans with tusks. Tend to only live 40 years and, due to the presence of more than a dash of racism in the Shadowrun world, are regarded as kinda dumb. Enough of 'em actually are to keep the stereotype alive and well to this day (2070-something, IIRC)  
SIN - System Identification Number, all regular citizens have them.  
Wyrm - Dragon  
Scratch - Money  
Chummer - Friend  
Suit - Someone who works for a corporation  
Grunger - Racist term for an Ork  
Yaks - Short form of Yakuza, like the Japanese gang.  
Made - An official member of the Mafia  
Bioware - Implanted augmentation based on biological methods instead of hardware, eg. Genetic modification or biografts  
Wageslave - Someone who works for a corporation, generally on the lower rungs of the hierarchy  
Dusting - Killing.  
SINner - Someone with a SIN, an honest citizen.  
Biz - Business  
Burned - Destroyed and Abandoned  
Sha - New Orleans Slang for friends (Chere)  
Handle - A chosen identifier.  
Laissez les bon temps rouler! - New Orleans Slang for 'Let the Good Times Roll!". Also the name of a hella good jazz swing song.  
Soykaf - Hella shitty coffee that the world of Shadowrun is stuck with  
Shadowlands - An online forum for shadowrunners to hang around in and get information from.  
Hoi - Hi  
Buzz - To go, as in 'lets buzz'  
Streetslang - Bullshit language spoken on the streets  
Sperethiel - Elven Language, very odd.  
Ancients - An Elf Gang, one of the largest gangs in North America.  
Corp - Corporation/Corporate etc.  
Talismonger - Someone who sells magic gewgaws.  
Aces - Awesome  
Deckjockey - A real good decker.  
Flatlined - Killed by Intrusion Countermeasure Programs in the Matrix.

\--


	2. Joining an Empire of Crime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter II: Empire of Crime  
> \------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
> AN:  
> Hey there, Fan-fic-folks! 
> 
> I don't actually have anything to say here. Other than the fact that this took a while. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and, as always, please review  
> \-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wake up in unfamiliar darkness.

For a moment, my heart jumps in my chest as I try to figure out where I am, and then I remember.

Mostly because of the machine-gun rotary-barrel around 2 inches above my head. Max's damned drones had been poking me in the side all night. Where the hell did she even come across this shit? The finer points of mechanical engineering aren't exactly the sort of thing an avowed loner hipster nerd picks up overnight. 

I roll over on the sleeping pallet (clearly taken from a coffin hotel, by the way, not that beggars could be choosers), and tap on my deck to bring up the time. Six thirty. Good to know. At least my sleeping schedule has lasted through the hell of the last couple of days. 

It's a small thing, but at least it's something. I've spent the last two days mostly feeling adrift, alone. I want to feel like I belong again. I want to feel I have some damn control over my life. So, the small things will have to do until I can make the big things happen. And you can be damn sure, I'll make it all happen eventually. I got it all through hard work and hard decisions once, so I can do it again.

I open the door to my room and walk into the main living space. It's technically open plan, though only because the divider walls are so old and worn that they've mostly fallen down. It looks different in the morning light; the large bay windows lining every wall of the warehouse-turned-penthouse apartment let in light from every angle, except for over in one corner opposite the doors that has cardboard taped over the windows to create a dark spot with absolutely no light. 

Max is sitting there, in the dark, staring at me.

She's not actually staring at me. Her eyes are that odd shiny texture one gets when one 'jacks in', meaning her mind is off floating about in a drone somewhere. Or maybe gliding through the Matrix. Either way, she was checked out and Chloe was nowhere to be seen. 

I tried to wait, but I was hungry and everything in here was hidden away in side-lockers and drop-boxes and thus totally frakking inaccessible without keycodes. So, I stalked up to Max's prone form and, with a scowl at her blank face, pulled out my deck and started hunting. 

I found the drone a short distance away. The ICE was child's play (for Ice... Ew. No. I need to keep working on that catchphrase, fucking hell.) and I was in after barely a minute of work. Huh. Apparently the thing had a camera. Max must've been using the drone to look at something... I piggybacked a carrier on the signal and brought the feed up on my screen. 

I was immediately inflicted by the sight of a naked troll girl with neon-blue hair writhing beneath me and I shut my damn eyes just as immediately. 

Fucking gah! 

I slam my hand down on the key to close that Pandora's Box of horrors. My disgusted shuddering was interrupted by a light, rippling, familiar laugh that made me snap my eyes open. 

Max's eyes were back to their usual dull hipster sheen and she was fucking laughing at me. That... that bitch! After a few irritating seconds, her laughs die down into muted chuckles and she just shakes her head at me. "You really shouldn't go prying into other people's heads, you know." 

I jab a finger at her. "And you shouldn't be doing... that in a public space! That's just-" 

"Hot?" A voice comes from behind me, accompanied by the low swipe of an opening security door as Chloe joins us. She's clothed, thank fuck, but I get an awkward flash of... what I just saw that causes me to flinch and my stomach to turn. 

"No, I just-" 

Chloe stalks over. "What were you even doing, dude? Why the frakk would you try that drek?"

I shake my head another few times to clear that... image, and just shrug. "I needed food. She was busy. Figured I'd find the passcode in her head and get it myself." 

"Yeah, well. Don't do that again." She glares at me expectantly. "Stay outta our heads, so ka?"

I nod. "So ka."

"Wiz." All animosity suddenly disappears as she grins, flashing me her tusks. "What's for breakfast? I need a soykaf."

"Make it quick." Max waves a chrono and taps it. "It's nearly seven and Nana wants to see us at eight."

I stay quiet as the two cheerfully banter and flirt their way through making breakfast, only speaking up when they asked a direct question. I honestly wasn't sure what I was feeling listening to them. Most of my meals were taken alone or over business with colleagues, so they always had an air of... formality to them. Chloe and Max, on the other hand, couldn't be less informal. They joked, they laughed, they... flirted. It was all so... unfamiliar. 

I think it might've been nice. I certainly never had anything like that with my... partner, before he...

I sigh, and stand suddenly from the table. "Shouldn't we be going?" 

Chloe froze, spoon halfway to her mouth. "Huh?"

"It's a fifteen minute walk to Nana's house and it's just turning twenty to the hour. Don't you think she'd appreciate us being early?" I tilt my head imploringly. "Nana's already not a fan of mine, I need every edge I'm going to get to convince her to let me stay." 

Max chuckled at Chloe's... lack of enthusiasm, but stood anyway. "She's right, Chlo'. Let's buzz."

Chloe groaned and dropped the spoon. A few moments had all the dishes cleared away and a few more had all of us packed to leave. Max still wouldn't give me the damn gun, even when I asked nicely. I was tempted for a moment to try intimidating her, but I quickly dismissed that idea. It probably wouldn't work anymore, plus Chloe would probably kill me without a second thought if she thought I was going to hurt her girlfriend. So once again, I stayed quiet. I suppose it might be a good habit to get into. I don't have to talk and reveal myself as a suit and it also made a decent personality quirk for someone named 'Ice'. I'd met enough Shadowrunners to know streetnames often linked to personality traits, so giving into their expectations might help me blend. 

It was worth a try. 

\--

As planned, we arrive at the quaint little house with time to spare. Chloe, unwilling to wait, strode up to the door and knocked. The same psychedelically-haired troll answered the door. "You're early." 

Chloe flashed him a bright, toothy grin. "Figured Nana would appreciate the punctuality for once. We can wait, just wanted to check and make sure Nana knew we were here." 

He flashed her an equally bright, patronising look. "Of course she knows you're here, chummer." 

"So..." Chloe offers an olive branch of expectancy. My shock at her mature response was sorely tempered by the immature tone. "Can we come in?" 

"What do you think?" 

"No?" She tries.

He snorts. "Smart one, ace."

So, we wait. And wait. And wait. 

Eventually, the door opens, and Bolan steps out. He grins, wide and toothy. "Now you can come in." 

\--

"Hoi, Ice." 

I tilt my head at a very respectful incline. Everyone in this room would happily kill me if this woman ordered it. Again, respect was in my best interest. "Hello, Nana." I drew the rules of behaviour and etiquette, all the distant refinement and polite poise my parents had spent my childhood instilling within me together and cloaked myself in it. I had to be Ice, if I was going to survive. And I was going to survive. 

The woman eyed me for a few seconds, then nodded. "Your job is there, and we's ready to get that SIN of yours gone whenever you finish." She tossed a small datastick to me. "The associate in question is out in Puyallup. He's been skimmin' scratch that he owe to me. When I found out, I sen' a man to remind him who he fucking works for. My man didn't return, sha. So, I need you to go in, geek him, an' take any data you can find. If you can recover any o' the moneys he took, then you'll get a cut of it. Call it fifteen percent." She grins another knife-wound smiles. "I'm feelin' gen'rous today." 

I keep my face implacable, but inside I'm panicking. "...just me, Nana?"

She chuckles. "Nah, sha. You may be an 'ace decker', but you sure as hell don't know how to kill folks. Take Max and Chloe wit' you. They be the muscle, you be the brains." She tilts her head to focus on them instead of me. "She's in charge until she does somethin' stupid that's gon' get you killed. So ka?" 

They both nod. "So ka, Nana." 

They're agreeing to this? To following me? Are they insane?

I start paying attention to the conversation again just in time to see Nana throw Max a datastick. "-an' by the time you come back, your SIN'll be gone. Now, get out. You has a job to do." 

\--

The tramcar was obnoxiously quiet. Well, more accurately, the people inside it were quiet. The actual car was screeching like my mother after she found out my 'beloved husband' had gone missing. And believe me, that screech was loud.

There were very few people on the tram this early. The few that were gave us a wide berth. One woman, out with her daughter, was giving Chloe (who towered head and shoulders and upper chest above everyone else in the cab) the most obnoxiously nervous side-eye I'd seen in a while. It was fucking infuriating. Racist bitch. Though admittedly it could've also been the obnoxiously large shotgun Chloe had hefted over one shoulder. Wait no, not Chloe. Blue. I'm supposed to call her Blue on missions. Damnit. 

None of us spoke. If we had, I wasn't sure what I'd even say. How do you give orders to two childhood nemeses to do something you've never done before that could get any of you killed or arrested at a moments notice? It's one hell of a dilemma and, as the tramcar slowed to a stop and Max and Chloe step up to the doors, I realised that I had very little time to solve it. 

I trailed them out, narrowly skirting being locked back on the tram by the closing doors. I barely registered my near-escape, honestly too distracted to notice. My mind was busy running through possible outcomes of my leading today's venture, most of which involved inevitable and painful death. Perhaps understandably, my confidence was very low when Chloe's hand stopped me walking past the door to the slum building our target was supposedly inhabiting.

"So, Boss. What's the biz for this run?" Her irritating, fang-bearingly wide grin earns her my sharpest glare. 

The fragging bitch shrugged it off with a chuckle and an expectant raise of an eyebrow. At that point, I was half tempted to punch her. One look at the thick muscle in her arms made me reconsider that course of action very quickly. I liked my facial features how they were. So, I took a look at the building. It looked old, but most slum buildings did. I peered across the brickwork, the layers of gang tags and almost pornographic grafitti covering its surface, trying to come up with some semblance of an idea that might... wait. I frown, eyeing one of the windows. Buried under the 'artwork' was the edge of a poster. Well, a label, technically. Maybe even an advertisement. All I could see was the top left corner of a very, very familiar logo. "The building is secured." 

Max frowned. "What? Of course it is, Ice. Our Boss doesn't just-"

I waft a hand at her to shut up. Surprisingly, she does. "No, that's not what I mean. Look," I point to the poster. "That's an Intellicorp logo. We did a piece on them before they shut down. Their security was severely lacking." I pause for a moment, then issue my orders. "Check the outer walls of the building for any small circular panels." I hold out my hand, putting the tip of my thumb and ring finger together. "They should be about this big and somewhere near the ground." 

Max and Chloe share a... sceptical look and another hurried conversation-without-words before doing as I say. I find a spot as out of the way as I can manage and open up my deck. It takes barely a moment before I have everything ChaseSpace Media wrote about Intellicorp and I spend the next few moments re-familiarising myself with the details. Mostly the truly incredible number of weaknesses in their systems. They even left a hard-line Matrix plug in the outer walls - the small circular panel I had Chloe and Max looking for - under a flimsy-as-fuck maintenance seal. Some idiot in management probably thought it was a great cost saving measure. Nearly every customer they ever had fell victim to some crime or another. Mostly theft, obviously. I could break through that protection by sneezing. And lucky for me, the system hardware was so difficult to remove once installed that most of the companies simply co-opted them and filled in the vulnerabilities or disconnected it as best it they could. They were idiots too.

Heh. This might actually be fun. 

I stow my deck away and wait for Chloe and Max return. The dwarf got back first, shaking her head. "Nothing, Ice. There was a firedoor round the back though, but it was locked."

I nod. "Lets hope your girlfriend found something then."

I let out a relieved sigh when Chloe finally returned. My foot had been tapping impatiently the entire time and it was starting to hurt. "Well?" I demand, unintentionally. 

Chloe flashed me a mildly irritable look and held it until I realised what I'd done and politely repeated the question in a slightly less bitchy tone. Only slightly, though. It was still Chloe. "Well?"

She chuckled and grinned. "Found your hole. It's in the alley over there." 

I rolled my eyes at the fucking childish eyebrow waggle she tacked onto the end and strode past her. The alley is yet another typical example of slum artistry. Both the wall of Nana's associate's building and the one opposite were covered in just as much graffiti as the front, perhaps even more. I find myself studying some of it with what approaches actual interest, surprisingly. The large blue bird hologram fluttering over the wall, drawn around the windows as its eyes, was... striking. 

My interest died a swift death as the animation defecated on the ground. I scowled at it and headed to where Chloe pointed out the access port. A few seconds of work later and I'm in. One full floor map, camera and door access, and a brief and utterly useless maintenance doc file... downloaded. I also froze the internal camera displays to run a short loop, redirecting the actual feed to my deck. What the hell, I'll get the door locks as well. I unplug from the port less than three minutes after I plugged in. 

Max appeared at my left, Chloe at my right. "So, what now, Boss?"

"Now?" I grin. "Now we kick in the doors."

\--

"I didn't mean it literally, damnit!"

Chloe gave me a sheepish look as the left firedoor, now barely hanging onto the wall by only the upper wall mount, swung once, then twice, then fell to the ground with an annoyingly loud, annoyingly long-lasting crash. "Woops."

I stalked past her into the building, raising my handgun that Max had finally seen fit to let me use and muttering under my breath as I go. "Well, there goes our frakking stealth! Why am I always saddled with klutzy, idiotic-" 

Chloe just chuckled and followed me in. Max, though, paused for a second and swung the backpack off her shoulder onto the ground. After a few seconds the pack was back on her shoulders and we're accompanied by three moderately sized drones with moderately sized guns. We trail along through the uncomfortably empty first floor and stop at the bottom of the stairs.

A thought occurred. "How heavy are those drones?"

Max gave me a puzzled look and shrugged. "Few kilograms. Why?"

I look at her. Then the stairs. Then the drones. Then back to her. She smirks, and taps a button on her own deck. Suddenly, the damn things sprout wings. Well, not quite wings. They look like the giant fans on the side of some of what used to be my staff airbuses. I really miss those things. The only way to get two dozen staff across multiple subsidiaries back to headquarters for meetings. Disorganised pricks. 

I let the drones go first. There's a brief crack of gunfire as they clear the second floor stairwell of guards and we follow them up. I have to swallow a rising tide of nausea at the sight. Those moderately sized guns caused far more than moderate damage. A little shiver passes down my back as I hastily look away from the limb reaching out to clutch at my ankle. Normally, that would be fine, but the body said limb belonged to was pasted against one wall. 

The stairs up to the third floor were blocked by piles of random household things. "Damnit." A quick search on the map reveals there's a secondary stair on the other side of this floor. Unfortunately, a quick search on the cameras shows it's guarded. I smile when I see exactly what it's guarded by.

We hurry past the broken bodies and discarded detritus and head into the main lobby of the second floor. Unlike the first, this one is populated. The people around all have the characteristic twitching of BTL Junkies and the worn complexions of a brutal life; The aptly named 'Better than Life' chips let poor nobodies disappear into dreams that, for them, are better than their sad, inescapable reality. Some of these people are uncomfortably young. 

We keep our eyes low and head through. Max nods to the one cognisant individual here, a tall elf wearing headphones that I presume is the operator of this place. He absently nods back and we disappear out the next door. 

The next few rooms were unfit to house pigs, never mind human beings. The walls were as covered with graffiti and random dirt spots as the ones outside, and the floors were littered with... effluent. My internal interior-designer almost screamed in agony seeing the state of it. The people there were just as heartrending to look at. Downtrodden expressions on the faces of those who'd escaped into apathy and vacant glassy stares on the faces of those who'd escaped into their heads. Chloe had to almost pick me up to get me to move onward. When we were through and alone again, I turn to them. "That was horrible." 

Chloe shrugs, but the look Max gives me is almost compassionate. "You've never seen anything like that before, have you?" 

"No," I almost spit the word out. "No, I haven't. I mean... we covered BTL dens, but we never saw anything like this."

Chloe chuckles. "You never do, suit. Might as well be on frakking fairyland for all the reality you corp dogs see. You're always jandering around, nose in the air, up in your ivory frakking towers, never seeing any of the drek us commoners go through." Her chuckle turns dark. "Always missin' the know on anyone not 'important'." Her last remark was surprisingly bitter. 

Max hushes her and steps forward, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You're landing hot in a situation you've never been in before. It's only natural to be uncomfortable with it. Do you need a minute?"

I shake my head. "No. I'm going to see worse doing this, so I'll get used to it." 

Max almost beams. It's a little freaky in its intensity. "Wicked. Let's buzz. Not far to go now." 

We head out of the BTL den and into more regular accomodation. It's a relief to be in somewhere passably civilized. I watched mutely as a human man gets launched through a plaster divider wall in front of us, then dragged through into another room by a large troll. The other two don't even blink. Okay, scratch the 'passably civilised' comment.

Max stopped at the stairs up to the final floor. "We're here. Last chance to back out, Ice."

I shake my head. I've gone too far to start questioning things now. "I'll do whatever I have to to get my company back." 

Chloe grins. "Good choice, omae. Let's go frag these fuckers already. Drinks on Maxie when we get back."

I let them lead the way as we head upstairs. I'm confident and without other options, not insane. 

\--

The security door fizzed as we walked up to it. I just tapped a key and it slid open instantly. Man, I don't think anyone has ever been more grateful to encounter the shitty Intellicom system than I was right then. 

A corridor stretched ahead of us, two doors set in even intervals along both walls, then another larger door sat at the opposite end. It was quiet. Max sent the four drones down the hall, positioning two at each of the first two doors. Max and I went to the left, Chloe took the right. At Max's count, I opened the doors and she sent the drones in. Our side stayed quiet, but two loud cracks of bulletfire from Chloe's side let us know contact had been made. We paused and waited, keeping our guns lined on the other two doors. A couple of minutes and no action meant nobody would be coming out, according to Max. When I pointed out that just meant they were probably waiting in there for us, Max just grinned. 

Crazy little bitch.

We both went into the rooms and took a quick look around for anything interesting. Nana wanted data, after all. The room Max and I took was small storage. Lots of basic shelving filled with all manner of miscellaneous goods and supplies. I imagined... yep. Drug paraphernalia, too. I poke into a few more boxes. Nothing interesting or worth anything. 

"Ice!" Chloe called from the other room. "Get in here and hack this shit!"

I rolled my eyes. Demanding bitch and her- I pause and take a moment to yell back. "What shit?" 

"Fucked if I know! It's got sockets and a screen, so it's either a computer or the weirdest fragging sex toy!"

I grimace as another flash of that mornings events pops into my head before I can lock it back in the deepest darkest recesses of my brain. I do wish there was some kind of mental napalm I could use to burn that particular memory from my mind. It's the only way to be sure.

Still. If she's found something interesting, I suppose I had better go check it out. I leave Max poking through the storage and head into Chloe's side. I find her playing with some kind of fleshy looking thing and laughing to herself. 

I shake my head and ignore it. "Where's the computer?"

Chloe waves vaguely to a set-up in the corner. I sigh. "That's a cd player, Blue." 

She looks at me. "It is? Ah shit." She shrugs. "Nevermind then." She tosses the fleshy thing over her shoulder. "And fragg this. Let's buzz to the next rooms already." 

I follow her out and we burst in, finding both rooms clear of people. There was, however, a very interesting set-up that I actually had to work to break through. I filtered through a few bits of information and determined it was definitely something Nana would want. Honestly, I wasn't sure what it was, but Max patted my shoulder and said "Nice work, Nana will be happy with that find." so I'm making an educated assumption. A natural born Shadowrunner, I am not. 

We met up back in the corridor, and eyed the last door. "Just one more left, huh? Think he's in there?" 

I shrug. "There are no cameras in there, so I couldn't tell you." 

Chloe resists the urge to comment and takes her post at the left of the door. Max takes the right and I go behind her. I bring up the program on my deck that had control of the building's subsystems and tap to open the door.

It... doesn't.

"Problem?"

"The door isn't opening." 

"I can see that, Ice. Why isn't it opening?" 

I tap a few keys. "...because it's not tied into the other systems. It looks like it's operating on its own grid here on the upper level. I'll have it open in a moment." My fingers fly across the keys as I practically soar through encryption. They didn't even bother with a Matrix security net? It's like they wanted me to break in!

Unfortunately, I was a little too impressed with my own brilliance and forgot to warn them before I opened the door. It slid open as Max was leaning forward in full view of the people inside. They promptly decided she was a threat and, since they were criminals and their response was to shoot threats, they, uh... shot at her. It was only Chloe's quick reflexes that saved the girl from being torn to shreds by the sheer amount of lead and steel they were throwing at her. 

Max... honestly didn't seem all that upset about being shot at. I think it was a Shadowrunner thing, because I was terrified and I wasn't even the one under fire! 

She took a second to breathe, then laughed, pulling herself up to lean against the wall. "That was bracing." She quickly poked her head out, dodging back again after another blast of what I was mostly certain was machine gun fire nearly hit her. She grinned at me. Lunatic. "Seven of them, two to each side, two behind metal pillars in the middle of the room, and one behind an automated turret emplacement at the back." 

I perk up. "Automated?"

\--

"We surrender! Nana wants to talk to you, Manny!" We'd improvised a small white flag - still a recognised symbol to everyone, even now near every nation that'd ever held it as a rule had fallen to corporations - and waved it around in the doorway. 

'Manny' called back "Fine. Come on out, throw your guns down." It was odd, he sounded... British, maybe? But there was something off about the accent. Maybe he was from Somerset? 

I shrug at Max and mouth "Remember the plan," before walking in. 

I toss down my still-unused pistol and, after a moment of hesitation, Chloe and Max follow suit. That's when I get my first good look at the room. It's bigger than I thought it'd be. Bigger than was really possible, given the size of the building. They'd knocked through the back walls somehow, doubling the size of the room. There was a corridor in the middle of the wall off to the right and a recess in the wall to the left. The set-up was half living area, half hacktivist collective. The far wall was dominated by a large screen and smaller workstations were peppered across the room. The guards were still loitering around, guns pointed at us. 

Hmm. The angles should be right... 

This will work.

"So?" Mandy, a tall elf man in dark leather, crosses his arms and glares impatiently. The turret looms impressively behind him. "What's the old bitch want now?" 

I take two steps forward, stopping as one of the guards raises their gun and the small relay in my pocket vibrates. "To tame you, mostly. She's rather unimpressed with your recent changes in loyalty, Manny." 

Manny scoffs, and the anger in it sends little shivers down my spine. Maybe this plan wasn't such a good idea... "Then the bitch can go fuck herself. I found new friends now," With that, he waves his arms vaguely at his hirelings. I peer curiously at them. I mean, they were all elves, but surely he couldn't expect these few to help her- Oh. Each one of them had a familiar green A stitched or painted somewhere on their jackets. Shit. "They're Ancients." 

Manny grins. "Sure are, chummer. And they're right happy to help protect an angel with arctic info like me. And man, the cred is good. Like, we're talkin' triple what Nana condescended to pay me." He pauses, and his grin turns disturbing. It's too wide, and too pleased with himself. I took it in stride. Honestly, it was far scarier seeing that smile in body language than blatant expression. This was just... small time. "So, now you hosed this drek run up, what was your plan? Were you just going to break in here and shoot us?" 

I shrug, trying to sound as casual as I could. "Something like that." Damn it, I should've gotten a signal by now. There has to be something in here interfering with the connection. I... crap. I think I need to get closer. "Actually, we were supposed to introduce this," I pull out the relay after carefully finagling it inside my pocket until it slotted into a standard connector socket and toss it in his direction. He catches it, frowning in confusion at the flashing lights and odd configuration. Come on, come on... "-after we killed you. You might no longer be useful, but this is apparently decent real estate and she needed to give whoever came after the right info to get biz going again." He looks between me and the relay speculatively. I keep my eyes on him, but keep careful attention on the littlest green light right near the socket. Please connect, please. If my plan gets us all killed, Chloe will never let me hear the fucking end of it. 

After a tense moment, he tosses it onto a workstation with a shrug. "Well, we'll look through that when you're all dead, I guess. Thanks." 

I shrug again. It should be ready any time...

The automated turret suddenly starts firing. 

Now, I suppose.

I dive into cover - not from the turret, that was entirely under my control, but from the Ancients. - just as Chloe grabs Max and dashes out of the way. She takes a couple of hits with pained grunts, but makes it out of the room.

I just stayed down and waited for the gunfire to stop. 

"Everyone dead in there?" 

Chloe somehow manages to sound genuinely interested in the answer to a rhetorical question. I call back anyway. "I'm fine. The Ancients are less fine." The bullets had torn them into tiny pieces. It wasn't pleasant to look at, but after the BTL Den I found I could hold my gaze without the nausea. Still. Work to do, now. "Can you bring my deck in?"

I head over to the workstation that Manny put the relay down on and pick it up, pushing a button to switch off the auto-turret and another to sever the connection between it and my deck back in the corridor. No sense leaving it open for someone else to exploit. 

Max appears at my shoulder. "Here." She hands me my deck.

"Thanks." I plug into the system and access it manually, there really wasn't much point going through the Matrix here. The file manager access screen pops up and I start trawling for anything useful. Nana had said Manny was selling data, right? So, she'd have to have some record of what data she sold and the ancient whom she sold it to. 

Ah. Here.

"Got it. Let's buzz." 

Chloe groans. "Seriously, Ice, you gotta stop talkin' like that. Just sounds hella frakkin' wrong." 

\--

"Well, shah." Nana smiled as the goon behind me nodded affirmatively at the receipt of the information she'd asked for. "Looks like you gon' be wit' us after all. An' Manny will not be betrayin' anyone else anytime soon, I hope?"   
I nod. "Never again, Nana." 

"Good. Tho' the Ancients bein' involved is somethin' of a problem. We gon' have to deal wit' that sometime soon. Regardless. Your SIN be burned and your new life wit' us be good for our biz, so you be welcome to stay." She wafts a hand aristocratically in our direction. "Now, get out. I be sure Chloe an' Max wan' ta celebrate the win wit' you." 

We get the hell out of there. 

\--

Chloe slings a companionable arm over my shoulders and grins toothily at me. "So, Ice. Whatcha gonna do now you've survived your first run as a proper Shadowrunner?" 

I think for a moment, then... "I'm going to get a drink." 

Chloe laughs. "My kinda girl. Let's buzz over to Dante's. Drinks're on Maxie!"

\--

Jander - Swagger  
The Know - information  
Landing Hot - Crashing in a broken vehicle  
Arctic - Great  
Angel - Benefactor  
Hosed - Fucked up  
Drek Run - Simple Job


End file.
